Happy second day of spring, readers! Let’s dive right in, please see below for the latest in foreign filing news:

Your „March Madness“ festivities might be infringing on a protected trademark. The NCAA has a strict „trademark protection program“ outlined on their website to protect the brand from becoming too generic.

This ambitious plan by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) looks to cut patent examinations lengths in half. This would reduce the average length of an examination from around 2 1/2 years to 14 months by 2023.

This newly introduced bill looks to end USPTO fee diversion, by placing fees in a separate fund to prevent them from being raided for other purposes.

With 2,309 filings under the PCT, ZTE was ranked No. 2 in WIPO’s number of patent applications in 2013, behind Panasonic Corporation at No. 1.

Enjoy this first weekend of spring! I’ll see you back here next week with more Intellectual Property updates. Please be sure to follow us on Twitter @inoviaIP!